How green is your councillor? Report card grades are in!

[OIPWHR-M.T.]

How green is your councillor? Report card grades are in!December 8, 2009Dear M.T. Al-Mansouri,The results are in for Ecology Ottawa's annual report card on city council. In this year's report, seven council members scored D or lower -- including Mayor O'Brien, who received a failing grade.The report reviews 14 key environmental decisions made by council over the past year and assigns a grade to the mayor and each councillor based on the votes he or she cast. It is available online at www.ottawacouncilwatch.caWith less than a year to go before the next municipal election, this report is a crucial tool that Ecology Ottawa will be using to raise public awareness and make the environment a central election issue.You need a watchdog at city hall, and Ecology Ottawa needs your help to get the results of this report card into communities across the city. Please make a donation today so that we can ensure this is an effective, city-wide effort! To donate, click here.Over the last three years, council has finally moved forward on some important environmental plans set in motion during the last council term. (Thanks in part, no doubt, to people like you speaking up!) But many have been watered down or underfunded, and major new environmental initiatives have been lacking. "Our mayor and councillors appear to be set to sleepwalk into the final year of their term without the ambitious plans or political will needed to confront climate change and other pressing environmental challenges," concludes the report.We need to expand our base so that we can mobilize all Ottawa residents who want a healthy, sustainable city to hold council accountable in the municipal election next fall.We will be working hard to make the environment a key election issue, going door to door in neighbourhoods across the city to ensure that people know the environmental record of their mayor and councillors. But we can't succeed without your support. So we're asking you to take two actions today:- Email as many people as you can in Ottawa who care about these issues, especially those living in wards represented by councillors who scored poorly in the report. Ask them to find out how their mayor and councillors measure up by visiting www.ottawacouncilwatch.ca. Let them know that you will be voting in the next municipal election, and urge them to do so too.- Make a donation to Ecology Ottawa. We are a non-profit organization reliant entirely on grants and voluntary contributions from people like you. For details on how to donate online or by mail, click here.Our city won't tackle its environmental problems without people who take those problems seriously representing us at city hall. We need a mayor and councillors with environmental vision and political will. Thank you for joining us in the effort to bring about this much-needed change.Sincerely,Graham SaulChair, Ecology Ottawa